UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson walked across a street toward a conference hotel more than an hour before the conference’s scheduled start time – and was gunned down during his brief commute, the New York Police Department said.
Thompson was shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, where his company’s annual investors’ conference was scheduled to take place.
“The shooter arrived at the location on foot about five minutes prior to the victim’s arrival. He stands along the building line as numerous other people and pedestrians pass him by,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said, citing preliminary information and surveillance video.
“At 6:44 a.m., the victim is walking alone towards the Hilton after exiting his hotel across the street. We believe the victim was headed to the Hilton hotel to attend the (UnitedHealthcare) investors’ conference that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m.,” Kenny said.
The gunman “approaches the victim from behind and shoots him in the back,” the chief said. “The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot. It appears the gun malfunctions as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.”
“At 6:46 a.m., patrol officers from Midtown North Precinct responded to a 911 call of a person shot in front of the Hilton hotel located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. This is between West 53rd Street and West 54th Street,” the chief said.
“At 6:48 a.m., officers arrived and find the victim, Brian R. Thompson, a 50-year-old male, on the sidewalk in front of the Hilton with gunshot wounds to his back and leg. Mr. Thompson was removed by EMS to Roosevelt Hospital (now known as Mount Sinai West), where he was pronounced dead at 7:12 a.m.”
After killing Thompson, the gunman fled “northbound into an alleyway between 54th Street and 55th Street,” Kenny said.
“Once at West 55th Street, the shooter continues to walk westbound on Avenue of the Americas, where he gets onto an electric e-Citi bike and rides northbound on Avenue of the Americas toward Central Park, where at 6:48 a.m., we have the shooter riding this bike into Central Park at Center Drive,” the chief said. “At the scene, we recover three live 9mm rounds and three discharged 9mm shell casings.”